Builder Resources

Boy oh boy, today was a long day. I started out the day in a 2 hour morning meeting about hangars, then an hour drive down to Annapolis to put my boat into the water for the season. After all of that was taken care of, I got home and saw all of these people touring houses around my neighborhood. There are a bunch of historical houses around me, and today was a tour of all of them. Turns out the house across from me used to be owned by the son of Francis Scott Key, the writer of the United States national anthem - The Star Spangled Banner.

OK, enough with the history lesson. When I got home I finished the downward bend of the longerons. As you can see, they fit the side skin perfectly.

Next was putting a 17 degree inboard bend the forward part of the longeron. A nice long crescent wrench made this a breeze.

My angle turned out absolutely perfect. -0.8 degrees before the bend.

And 16.2 degrees after the bend. This was without a doubt the easiest part of the longerons.

Finally, I put the longerons up in the rafters to keep them out of the way. I won't need these puppies for a little bit. Longerons are DONE!

Next was onto trimming the F-786 J-stiffeners. All 6 of them are 96" long and need to be trimmed to three different lengths. I did that then called it a night. I think all 6 of them need to be trimmed on their aft end for termination into the bulkhead. The instructions are a little lacking here on that detail, as they only show one set of them needing trimming. But after looking at the drawing and bulkheads, it looks like all of them need it. I will sneak a peek at other people builders logs and look at the plans again before continuing. Perfect place to stop for the night.